


A Guide to Passive Aggressive Compliance by Pastor Drom

by OtherCat



Series: The Yiling Almanac [3]
Category: The Hidden Almanac (Podcast), 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV), 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crossover, Gen, Jiang Yanli probably already knows about passive resistance, Jinzhu and Yinzhu may or may not be scabs, Madame Yu is terrible
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-14 17:29:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28799133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OtherCat/pseuds/OtherCat
Summary: Madame Yu makes Wei Ying's presence as a guest disciple hard. It's a good thing he has a miracle worker to help him find a solution to the problem. (The miracle worker is not Jiang Yanli.)
Relationships: Jiāng Chéng | Jiāng Wǎnyín & Jiāng Chí & Jiāng Yànlí & Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn
Series: The Yiling Almanac [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1968502
Comments: 9
Kudos: 29





	A Guide to Passive Aggressive Compliance by Pastor Drom

It was three months into Wei Ying's stay as a guest disciple at Lotus Pier and he hadn't said a _word_ about what happened. How Madame Yu had gotten angry (well angrier, she always seemed to be angry) over Wei Ying beating her son in a spar. Jiang Cheng had gotten slapped for being beaten by the son of a servant. Wei Ying had been slapped for being the son of a servant who beat Jiang Cheng and asking why being the son of a servant was an insult. 

(It also turned out to be a mistake to let Jiang Cheng _win_ in a spar. Madame Yu screamed in his face for forever for that one. Jiang Cheng wouldn't talk to him for almost a day and a half until his sister scolded him into making up.)

But he had not said anything about this in his letters home to Dhaozhang Mord or Dhaozhang Drom. Instead he talked about the kindness of his "uncle" and his martial siblings, learning to swim, what he was studying about talismans and everything he was learning about sword cultivation.

So he has no idea how she knew to send a book about passive resistance. A book she had written. (Dhaozhang Drom's note: Say the word and I'll send you a book on unionization. Dhaozhang Mord's note: I don't know how either. If you feel unsafe we'll find a different sect to train you.)

Wei Ying doesn't precisely feel unsafe. He’s just generally unhappy to be a point of contention. And being shoved forward as a friend ("brother") to another kid on one hand ("Uncle Jiang Fengmian") and shoved away on the other (“Madame Yu”). 

The book is very helpful and shows how to confront gentry. (In such a way they did not have a way to really retaliate without losing face.) He is only variably successful! A lot of the scripts don’t go the way he intended them, or he forgets the wording. But he figures that he just needs practice. The book also explains the purpose behind passive resistance and how it’s a two pronged attack since the surface obedience is meant to conceal other activities intended to undermine the master’s power over the servant.

This wasn’t really Wei Ying’s situation. He could always go home and let the Dhaozhangs find him a different sect. (It’s a little scary to think about what might have happened if he didn’t have the Dhaozhangs to help him.) Sometimes he thought he should leave. But he really liked Uncle Jiang, and he liked Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yanli. He also thought that Jiang way of doing things would suit him best, (except when Madame Yu was in the training court).

Wei Ying starts small. He decides to: 

  * Avoid sparring Jiang Cheng unless specifically ordered to


  * Stop calling “Uncle Jiang” uncle


  * Start calling Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yanli “young master” and “young mistress” (this was especially hard)


  * Use the phrase "this one is only the son of a servant" a lot


  * Use "this one is only the son of a servant" as a valid excuse to not do things or say things



He starts out small, being more formal even if “Uncle,” Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yanli wanted him to be casual. Not letting Jiang Cheng come along on his explorations around Lotus Pier and so on. Politely refusing to let Jiang Yanli feed him any of her recipes. (He would chop up vegetables for her though. He could not say no to her.)

This initially goes well in the first few weeks, and Madame Yu seems satisfied that he’s “learning his place.” (Her extremely terrifying maids however give him narrow eyed and suspicious looks.) Uncle, Jiang Cheng and Yanli however are less than pleased. (Uncle Jiang tries to “draw him out,” which results in some late night arguing.)

Wei Ying decides "the son of a servant" shouldn't sleep in the same room with the sect heir. He first tries to get a bed in the servant's quarters. This works for a few nights. He just sneaks out once Jiang Cheng falls asleep and heads down to the servant quarters. They are willing to give him a bed, out of sympathy due to his proximity Madame Yu and her maids. (No one really likes the maids and are actively terrified of Madame Yu. Wei Ying suspects the hand maids are what the book refers to as “scabs.”) Some of the servants even knew his father and are willing to exchange stories for chores. 

Jiang Cheng is not happy when he finally catches Wei Ying sneaking back into the room in the morning "Are you mad at me? You better not be."

"Why would this Wei Ying be mad at you young master?" Wei Ying asks. "This one didn't want to disturb your sleep."

"You are so full of--," Jiang Cheng cuts himself off, going red in the face. Wei Ying was torn between feeling guilty and wanting to poke Jiang Cheng in the cheek. "Why are you being so weird."

"This son of a servant doesn't understand--"

"That's it!" Jiang Cheng drags Wei Ying off by the arm to his sister, who is in the kitchen helping the cooks with breakfast preparations. "Jiejie fix him!" Jiang Cheng shouts, shoving Wei Ying toward his sister.

"This guest disciple doesn't understand, there isn't any--"

"You shut up!" Jiang Cheng shouted. "A'Li make him stop!"

"A'Cheng,” Jiang Yanli says chidingly.

“Young mistress, this one is at fault,” Wei Ying says with a bow. “Wei Ying did not mean to offend the young master by seeking a bed in the servant’s quarters.”

Jiang Yanli frowns at him. “You’re a guest disciple, Wei Ying, if you didn’t want to share a room with Jiang Cheng, you could have slept in the disciple dormitories.”

“This one is only the son of a servant, and is not worthy to be among the young masters,” Wei Ying says.

“Is this suddenly Lanling instead of Lotus Pier?” one of the cooks asks with wondering sarcasm. “No, obviously it’s not; everything isn’t covered in _gold leaf_. Young Master Wei can come carry congee to the disciples’ breakfast hall if he’s so humble.” She points to the servers, younger juniors carrying pots and platters of breakfast.

Wei Ying makes his escape with the other juniors, despite Jiang Cheng’s protests.

Jiang Yanli does corner him eventually, while he’s doing the walking meditation Dhaozhang Drom helped him learn when it became obvious Wei Ying was completely unable to sit down (except when he was extremely focused on something he was interested in. Meditation was not one of those things). There was a pavilion choked with reeds and water iris the juniors fished from (and occasionally threw each other from) that Wei Ying usually picked. In fact he was anticipating having to throw someone into the water when he became aware someone was coming toward him.

Jiang Yanli narrowly misses getting tossed into the reeds. She dodges him, and turns his attack back so he’s the one who nearly ends up over the pavilion’s rail. Wei Ying makes a noise that isn’t a panicked squeak and scrabbles to get his balance, before standing and bowing. “Forgiveness, young mistress, you startled me,” he says.

Jiang Yanli fails to hide a smile. She has a sleeve up, covering her mouth, but her eyes are crinkling at the corners. “Are you being bullied, didi?” she asks. “Do I need to beat someone up?” She sits down on one of the benches by the railing.

Somehow the “didi” makes Wei Ying feel incredibly guilty for the past few weeks. “Being a test garden intern means developing your situation awareness,” he says. Stupid vampire squash. Why did something so stupidly vicious have to taste so delicious? Why did they keep ambushing him instead of eating garden pests like they were supposed to?

“I wouldn’t think gardening was very dangerous,” Jiang Yanli says.

“You’d be really, really surprised,” Wei Ying says. “And I guess it will be good for me when I’m a rogue cultivator.”

“I think Father would like it if you wanted to stay as a Jiang disciple,” Jiang Yanli says.

“I would too, but Yu-furen wouldn’t,” Wei Ying says. “She’s already mad I’m here as a guest disciple.”

“Is that why you’ve been trying so hard to be polite and formal?” Jiang Yanli asks.

Wei Ying nods. “Dhaozhang Drom wrote me a manual.”

Jiang Yanli looks surprised “She wrote a manual for you? Of servant protocol Jiang doesn’t really follow except for Mother?”

“Not exactly.” He takes the manual out of his qiankun sleeve. (Should he be showing it to her? He is pretty sure he can trust her, but the forward does not have nice things to say about “the bosses” or the gentry.) “Um. Don’t read the forward,” Wei Ying says.

Jiang Yanli hums a semi-acknowledgment of what he says, and skims through the book. He feels nervous as she reads with apparent interest, and a tiny smile that grows into a surprisingly wicked grin. “I think I like your Dhaozhang Drom,” she says, handing it back. “I would like to read this book in more detail later. Can I borrow it?” She thinks about it. “No, can I buy a copy from your Dhaozhang?”

Wei Ying nods. “Sure! I’ll mention it in my next letter.”

Jiang Yanli gets up, and indicates he follow her. He takes up a position just behind her, like a body guard or Yu-furen’s maids. “You could have said something,” Jiang Yanli says. “Maybe not Father, or A’Cheng but you could have told me. It hurt thinking Mother might have frightened you out of wanting to be our brother.”

“She’s your mother, it seemed like a better idea to make her happy,” Wei Ying says. “I’m sorry.”

“I think A’Cheng would say, ‘well we weren’t happy!’” Jiang Yanli says with a little smile.

“Forgiveness. Of course the young mistress is correct,” Wei Ying says, teasingly.

Without dropping her smile, Jiang Yanli stops to kick him in the ankle before continuing on. 

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. A running gag in the Hidden Almanac is how quickly Pastor Drom can get a book out. She writes in a wide area of topics, as well. 
> 
> 2\. Madame Yu doesn't get a character tag because she's more of an offstage presence. 
> 
> 3\. Once again, I have no clue if I'm doing any of this right and welcome spelling corrections and cultural corrections. (Special note: please don't bother with showing me the pinyin characters so I'll know what the right letters are supposed to be--because I won't. I don't even know if "pinyin" is the right word. I will be confused and sad. Do you want me to be confused and sad?)
> 
> 4\. Jiang Yanli is perfect and sweet, but I want to believe she is capable of tossing a boy into the river. (marsh? delta? Lotus Pier is obviously on a river, but...) Let Jiang Yanli Threaten to Beat Up Bullies for Her Bros.


End file.
